Hi Peter > Please bear in mind that I am quoting sources from 120+ years ago, I appreciate that, but many people see such things 'in print' and then accept them as 'gospel'. > My chief point is that *I doubt that* the Americans would have mounted a > huge effort to replace the entire population of honey bees in the New World > were it not for their perception that the Italian was a *much better bee*. > That's all. I wasn't there, so I don't know. Likewise I was not there, but I do wonder how much the change was influenced by a few 'well known' and possibly over persuasive individuals that were revered at the time. There is a lot of rhetoric about bee races, but when all comes to all, very few can point to an apiary of bees (yard) and backup their claim that they are of some race or another with any certainty or evidential proof. Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable) ****************************************************** * Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm * ******************************************************